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I’ve come across a few people who believe that minesweeper lays down only half the number of bombs and only adds the other half on the board as the game progresses.

I debugged the game myself and have found that it is completely false. However, the game ensures that you don’t click a bomb on the first click. Hence, if the first click is a bomb, it is removed from the grid and placed at the first empty location from the coordinate (0,0) i.e. the top-left location.

Hence, if you clicked on (3,2) which originally had a bomb, it would be removed from (3,2) and placed at (0,0) if that location were empty.

This can also be verified without using a debugger. Use the xyzzy cheat to enable the white pixel at the top-left corner of the screen. Then, find a location which contains a bomb (ie. black pixel at top-left corner of the screen) but don’t click it. Now, move your cursor to the top-left corner of the screen and check if it has a bomb.

Now click on the previous location which had a bomb and you’ll notice that there isn’t a bomb once you click it. Then move your cursor to the top-left corner of the board and you’ll notice that the bomb has been shifted to the top-left location.

Minesweeper cheats FOR you and not against you to ensure that you can start the game without clicking a bomb everytime.